History Personnel
Teaching - Fall/Winter 2024-25
HIS 3844F - Scandals And Tragedies: Controversial Medical Cases In History
HIS 3840G - Microscopes and Amputation Saws: A History of Medicine in 10 Objects
Supervision
Master's & Doctoral Level supervisory privileges
Shelley McKellar
- The Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine
- Research Chair, Department of History
- Professor (Joint Appointment with the Department of Surgery)
PhD, University of Toronto, 1999
Telephone: 519-661-2111 ext. 84990
Email: smckell@uwo.ca
Office: Lawson Hall 2227
Office hours: Fall Term 2024 - Wednesdays 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Winter Term 2025 - Wednesdays 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
History of Medicine at Western
Research Interests
Professor McKellar studies the history of medicine and health care, with a special interest in the history of medical technology, instruments and devices, the history of surgery, and medical biography.
Teaching Experience
Professor McKellar teaches the history of medicine, the medical profession, and related historical aspects of 'doctoring' (highlighting the dynamic interrelationship between medicine and society through history) to medical students in the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. In the Faculty of Social Science, she teaches the history of medicine, medical technology, and related health care aspects of class, race, gender, sexuality, and disability to undergraduate and graduate history students. She advises graduate and medical students on a variety of medical history projects.
Major Research Projects
Professor McKellar is busy on a new book project, entitled “Cutting for Purpose: Instruments and Intentions in the History of Surgery,” which is an object-centred study exploring how surgical instruments and the act of cutting shaped 19th century medical practice. Using a material culture framework and case-based approach, this project traces the introduction and adoption (or rejection) of various “new” surgical instruments, related implications for patients and clinical management of select medical cases, the dynamic nature of medical ideas and practices, the role of tacit knowledge, and the nature of professional expertise during the 19th century.
Professor McKellar also curates the Medical Artifact Collection, which is a university study collection, representative of late 19th- and early to mid-20th century practice and teaching of health and medicine in southwestern Ontario. It can be viewed online at www.medicalhistory.uwo.ca.
Select Publications
Books Authored
Transforming Dentistry: The Rise and Near Demise of Dentistry at Western University with David J. Kenny (University of Toronto Press, 2022). 392 pp.
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Artificial Hearts: The Allure and Ambivalence of a Controversial Medical Technology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018). 384 pp.
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Medicine and Technology in Canada, 1900-1950 . with Allison Kirk-Montgomery. Transformation Series #16 (Ottawa: Canada Science and Technology Museum, 2008). 171 pp.
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Surgical Limits: The Life of Gordon Murray (University of Toronto Press, 2003). 270 pp.
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Books Edited
Essays in Honour of Michael Bliss: Figuring the Social. Co-edited with Alison Li, Elsbeth Heaman. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). 491 pp.
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Chapters in Books
- “History of Mechanical Circulatory Support,” Mechanical Support for Heart Failure: Current Solutions and New Technologies, edited by Jamshid H. Karimov, Kiyotaka Fukamachi, and Randall C. Starling (Springer Nature, 2020), chapter 1.
- “Disruptive Potential: The ‘Landmark’ REMATCH Trial, Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) Technology and the Surgical Treatment of Heart Failure in the United States”, Technological Change in Modern Surgery: Historical Perspectives on Innovation edited by Thomas Schlich and Christopher Crenner (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2017), 129-155.
- "Medicine and Technology in the United States", The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology, edited by Hugh R. Slotten (Oxford University Press, 2014): 73-8.
Journal Articles
- with Justin Barr and Cynthia K. Shortell, “Making Vascular Surgery Work: Gordon Murray, Heparin, and Anastomoses”, Annals of Vascular Surgery, (April 6, 2021)
- “The Value of Multiple Approaches: The Early Years of Artificial Heart Research”, Artificial Organs 42, 5 (May 2018): 473-475.
- “The Promissory Nature of Artificial Hearts”, The Lancet 391,10124 (Mar 10, 2018): 930-931.
- “Clinical Firsts: Christiaan Barnard and Heart Transplantation,” New England Journal of Medicine 377, 23 (Dec 7, 2017): 2211-3.
- “Atomic Hearts: A Decade of U.S. Government-Sponsored Development, 1967-1977”, Physics Today 69, 5 (May 2016): 38-44.
- “Dr William Waugh (1851-1936): Promoter of Change in 19th C Medical Education and Practice”, Canadian Journal of Surgery 59, 2 (April 2016): 143-4.
- “Repairing Hearts: Innovations in Cardiac Surgery", Heritage Matters 14, 1 (Feb 2016): 13-15.
- "Negotiating Risk: The Failed Development of Atomic Hearts in America, 1967-1977", Technology and Culture 54,1 (Jan 2013): 1-39.
- See The Atlantic blog comments by Alexis C. Madrigal.
Research Presentations
- “‘To cut or not to cut?’: The sentiments and implications rooted in the materialities of surgery,” 2024 Canadian Society for the History of Medicine conference, Congress 2024, McGill University (2024)
- "Artificial Hearts-could we; should we? A controversial Medical Technology and its Sensational Patient Cases,” Surgical History Section, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Christchurch, New Zealand (2024)
- "Blades, Speed or precision in Surgery-what matters most? The Changing Characteristic of the Surgical Cut since the 19th Century,” Surgical History Section, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Christchurch, New Zealand (2024)
- “‘The greatest obstacle to becoming a surgeon was being a woman:’ Canadian surgeon Jessie Gray (1910-78) and gender disparities in surgical training,” Surgical Education Section, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Christchurch, New Zealand (2024)
- “Complementary or Competitive Lines of Investigation? The 1960s ‘Dispute’ of Cardiac Transplantation versus Mechanical Implantation to Replace the Damaged Heart,” Invitation Workshop on the History of Cardiac Transplantation, Singapore Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2024)
- “Decontextualizing and Recontextualizing Medical Objects: The Role of Imagination, Connections, and Relevancy in Teaching with Medical Collections,” New Horizons for Medical Museums and Collections Conference, Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden, The Netherlands (2023)
- “Creative Spaces: Evoking Collection Curiosity through Artifact Photography,” LAMPHHS Annual Meeting in conjunction with AAHM 2023 conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (2023)
- “Medical Artifacts: A Hidden History? Exploring Physician Practices through the Material Culture of Medicine,” Middlesex-London Kiwanis Group [virtual talk] (2022)
- “‘Last Resort' Sentiments and Implications: Cutting, Instruments, and Technology in the History of Surgery,” 2021-2 MacLean Interdisciplinary Lecture Series, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, University of Chicago Medicine [virtual talk] (2021)
- “Lady Medicos: Dr. Jennie Kidd Trout and the Audacious Feats of Women in Medicine,” University Women’s Club of Toronto [virtual talk] (2021)
- “Cutting as Cure,” New Histories of Medical Technology—A Molina Symposium on the History of Medicine hosted by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Delaware [virtual talk] (2021)
Displays & Workshops
- Skulls: Pseudoscience and Surgery of the Head”, Case display, LwH (2023)
- “Teaching Anatomy and Microscopy at Western,” Case display, LwH (2019)
- “Alpha Kappa Kappa (AKK): Beta Kappa Chapter [Medicine] of London, Ontario,” Case display, MSB (2018)
- "Phrenology"; "Nurse's Uniform"; "Quack Medicine Treatments"; multiple Object Profile cases, LwH (2015)
- "Wounded! Front-line Medical Care in the First World War", Case display, LwH and MSB (2014)
- "Childbirth: Tools of the Physician", Case display, LwH (2013)
- "Behind the Display", Doors Open London (2012)
- "Instruments and Devices: The Material Culture of Medicine", Case display, D.B. Weldon Library (2011)
- “Toothkeys and Forceps: Tools of the Dentist”, “Teaching Anatomy and Microscopy at Western”, “Scalpels and Stethoscopes: The Doctor’s Instruments”, multiple Case displays celebrating the 130th anniversary of Western's Medical School, MSB (2011)
In The News
- Announcement: Dr. Shelley McKellar re-appointed as the AMS-endowed Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine
- Western News - From Cholera to COVID: New course melds past with present
- How can historical medical achievements give us a framework and new approaches for medical care today? [Profile by Jennifer Parraga]
- Dr. Shelley McKellar named as one of Western University’s 2019 Faculty Scholars
- 50 years later, artificial hearts still mesmerize
- McKellar's newest book discussed in The New York Review of Books
- Dr. Shelley McKellar Appointed to the AMS Healthcare Board of Directors
- New book gets to the heart of the matter
- Announcement: Dr. Shelley McKellar has been re-appointed as the Hannah Endowed Chair in the History of Medicine
Awards & Distinctions
- 2019-2021 - Western Faculty Scholar
Award recognizes significant recent scholarly achievements in teaching or research, Office of the President, Western University - 2010-11, 2012-13 - USC Teaching Honour Roll
Award of Excellence in Teaching, Western University